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14 pin connector

I am trying to figure out what to use for a gas valve on my little miller inverter cst280. I have had it for about a year now, and I just emptied my third bottle of argon to atmosphere because I was stupid enough to forget to turn off the valve on the tig torch head... My question: is there an output on the 14 pin connector that I could rig a solenoid valve to to turn my gas on and off? I realize that I would have no post flow gas, but I think that I can use a timed relay for that. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

I just happened to think about my Dynasty sitting in the shop back home. Haven't seen it in a few months, but I'm sure the bottle is on, and the machine is plugged in, as I always forget to close the shop up correctly. I suppose I should call my sister and have her help me out, wait, she might actually burn that bottle of argon up playing with my nice shop toy, lol.

I am trying to figure out what to use for a gas valve on my little miller inverter cst280. I have had it for about a year now, and I just emptied my third bottle of argon to atmosphere because I was stupid enough to forget to turn off the valve on the tig torch head... My question: is there an output on the 14 pin connector that I could rig a solenoid valve to to turn my gas on and off? I realize that I would have no post flow gas, but I think that I can use a timed relay for that. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

I don't know about your welder, so I'm no help there. I have a hand full of bottles and an air compressor in my shop. When I turn any of them on, I try to remember to turn on a little night light I have plugged into the wall. When I'm shutting down the shop and I've turned off all the lights and I'm about to shut the door, I notice the little night light. That is enough to remind me that I have a bottle with an open valve.

If that doesn't remind me of the open bottle, I just go around and check them all.

All I can say is that it's cheap and if you remember to turn it on, it works pretty well.

saving argon

I have done the same thing and I have a 336 cu ft tank of argon so it gets expensive.

After I wasted a full tank, I did a little experiment to see how much leakage there was in my run from the tank to the Dynasty.

I have an Airco (Concoa) 806-9474 regulator-flowmeter with a "Y" fitting feeding 2 hoses.

If I need to back purge, I use the A hose and the B hose. Otherwise, I use the B hose which is connected to the Dynasty.

Both A and B hoses have a shut-off valve built into the "Y" so I close the A valve
when I am tigging without back purging.

After my dumb mistake, here is what I did to see where the leakage was.

1 - I closed both A and B valves and then closed the cylinder valve.
(Approx 2200 PSI showing on the gauge.)

2 - Then I backed out the regulator-flowmeter adjustment handle fully and watched the gauge. Took about 6 minutes to drop to zero.

So even with the 2 valves closed, and in theory no gas could pass, I still had some leakage.
I am guessing this loss is thru the diaphrams in the regulator-flowmeter.
So there appears to be a "leak" even with the valves closed.

(2 questions for those using helium - since helium is a smaller molecule, are the diaphrams in the helium regulators made from a "tighter" material?

Have you noticed this leakage problem?)

My suggestion (and what I do now) like jworman"s system is to use a reminder device.

I got a couple of battery powered LED bicycle flashers from my local dollar store.

Keep one on top of the argon tank valve. When I need to tig, I turn on the flasher.
Hard to miss when I shut down.

If you really want to install a solenoid valve, I would put it "upstream" of the regulator and it could get expensive finding one rated for 2600 psi.